Businesses across Rochester are adjusting to the "new normal" as they are either forced to change the way they operate or choose to temporarily close to try to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the governors of Connecticut and New Jersey have agreed to close bars, restaurants, movie theaters and casinos starting at 8 p.m. Monday.
The governors said essential businesses like supermarkets and gas stations will be able to stay open after 8 p.m., though all nonessential businesses must close. Restaurants will be able to offer takeout and delivery.
"At least there's a way to be able to offer some form of work to our current staff," said Peter Gines, owner of Jines restaurant on Park Avenue in Rochester. "That's what you're really worried about."
Gines is contemplating what this means for his business and his 53-person staff.
"You have single moms that work for us; you have single dads that work for us," he said. "If you're asking someone to be out of work for two months, what do they do? How do they provide? How do they pay their bills?"
Video by Max Schulte/WXXI News
With the option of offering takeout and delivery services, Gines said he will probably be able to keep 80 percent of his cooks and chefs on payroll, but he said he doesn't have the means to offer paid leave to more than seven or eight servers and hosts.
Other business owners are making their own call to shut down.
Kyle Chapman, manager of the Ampell Barbershop in Fairport, said he and the four barbers who work there voted to temporarily close. He said it's the right thing to do.
"We're not so worried about us going to the hospital," Chapman explained. "It's our grandparents, it's our immune-compromised clients. We see two, three, four hundred people a week, and it's a hotbed to spread this thing."
Chapman hopes the decision sets an example for other businesses to do the same.
"It seems admirable what I'm doing," he said, "but I think by the end of the week, it'll be mandatory for everbody. I wish everybody would just get ahead of it now so we can open sooner."
Chapman and his colleagues are trying to figure out how they can pay their bills. He said self-employment insurance costs in New York state are "astronomical" and they are not covered.
